


A Very Cossack Christmas

by Mariana_Marea



Category: Rockman Megamix | Mega Man Megamix, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Morning, Christmas Party, F/M, Family Fluff, Family Reunions, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Forgiveness, Gen, Other, Robot Feels, Robot/Human Relationships, Robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:08:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27885769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mariana_Marea/pseuds/Mariana_Marea
Summary: The Cossack's are throwing a Christmas Party and everyone's here! But some people don't exactly feel welcome.
Relationships: Blues | Proto Man/Kalinka Cossack, Dr. Cossack & Kalinka Cossack, Kalinka Cossack & Pharaoh Man, Kalinka Cossack & Skull Man, Kalinka Cossack/Rockman | Mega Man, Rockman | Mega Man & Roll
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	1. Christmas Morning with Skull Man

**Author's Note:**

> I'm using a mix of original game plot, Archie, and Megamix canon, along with my own views on the characters to write this Christmas tale. I promise, everything will turn out well in the end.

Kalinka woke up about an hour before her alarm. As soon as she heard her father cooking and the bots cleaning, she wasted no time in jumping out of bed and running over to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Good morning, Dusty!" she yelled as she ran past him.

"Morning, your majesty…" he said with a stuffy nose, er, vacuum. 

Kalinka squealed as she took in the sweet aroma of Syrniki. Mikhail didn't stop cooking when she embraced him from behind. He extended an arm to give her a half hug, hand in the air to avoid getting her clothes dirty and smelling of breakfast.

"Daddy!" she squealed into his pajamas. 

"Good morning, sweetie." he said. "Sleep well?"

"Not really."

"I knew this would happen." he smirked. "Too excited."

"Well duh!" she sat down on the high chair. Kalinka swung her legs to and fro unconsciously at the same time that her torso moved back and forth. Mikhail, put his clean hand on her shoulder in a futile effort to get her to calm down as they talked. He envied Kalinka's youthful energies at times, especially on a day like that where he was up and running long before any sunlight shone over the citadel. 

"Is everyone coming?" she asked.

"So far, so good." he said as he heated up her breakfast. "Tundra Man should be arriving soon."

"Tundra! I haven't seen him in forever!" 

"I'm sure he'll be happy to see you. He called an hour ago. Said he has a lot of videos and pictures to share with you."

She squealed with glee at that thought as Mikhail served Kalinka her favorite morning dish. She immediately began devouring it and continued to ask, mouth full:

"Are all my brothers on their way?"

"Yes." 

"And the Lights?" 

"Yep."

"And the Lalinde's?"

"Yup."

"Aaaa!" she squealed again at the thought of such a huge family reunion. Kalinka had planned to do so many things with her favorite robots in the world, from games to movies to many more things. Mikhail on the other hand, looked forward to a night catching up and relaxing with his old friends. The robot conventions were hardly a calm place to simply chat about whatever they liked. 

As he sat down to eat with Kalinka, as she finished her plate, they both seemed to have the same thought.

"Where's Boney?" asked Kalinka.

"I don't know. I last saw him helping Dust Man when I woke up."

Without saying another word, Kalinka ran off to find Boney, leaving her plate unwashed, much to Mikhail's annoyance.

Bone Man, or Boney, was sitting alone, relatively speaking. He had several Skeleton Joes stationed in the upper levels of the citadel, on the lookout for anyone suspicious approaching it. Kalinka spotted him walking aimlessly on one of them and, after grabbing a heavy coat, she went up to see him.

"Good morning, Boney M.!" she yelled as she approached him. The cold winds threatened to suck out the heat from her extremities, but Kalinka paid them no heed, for the view from that balcony was gorgeous. The forest acted as a blanket of darkness over the snow covered floor. The first rays of sunshine were barely piercing the grey clouds and tall pines on the horizon. To any wandering soul in the wilderness, the Citadel was a beacon of life, lighting up the forest that reflected its colorful lights off of the white sheet below.

"Good morning, Kalinka." he said in his gravely but kind voice. He didn't look at her. Her cheery demeanor became sullen.

"Is something wrong?" she whispered.

"No."

"Okaaaay." she said and looked at the forest. Not only were the Joes looking out from the citadel, they were also stationed and patrolling the nearby forest.

"You guys...find anything?" 

"We've found a bear, a murder of crows, and a moose. Wait!...a red fox just now to the north." He said, as he looked eastwards toward the rising Sun. 

"Boney," Kalinka started, "I appreciate that you're looking out for us, but could you please take a break today?"

Boney took a moment to respond. He still didn't look at Kalinka.

"I'm sorry. I must remain vigilant." he said.

"Nu-uh!" Kalinka said. "You can't stay up here today."

"I must."

"No, you mustn't. It's your first Christmas and the entire family's coming together for the first time since...since ever! Dr. Light and Dr. Lalinde are on their way too and they're bringing their bots too!"

Silence.

"C'mon, Boney! I want you to be there!" she complained.

"I can't."

"After all that time I took to explain how special this is to you, you still wanna be alone up here."

"I have to. It's my duty."

"I don't believe that for a second!"

Boney finally looked down at Kalinka with the best perplexed stare he could muster. He knew what she hinted at, but diverted from it.

"It's the truth. Why do you think I'm lying?"

"Oh, I don't think you're lying. I know you're as worried as dad is about someone bombing the place. And I get it. It happens every Christmas that someone has the gall to do that. But one: those are usually meant for the churches and this is far from one. And two: Dr. Wily is spending his holiday in jail."

Boney growled. "His bots could still attack us out of spite…"

"On Christmas? Really? Don't you think they'd rather spend Christmas with each other?"

"Kalinka, they spite us for being happy."

"Ugh! Fine. I'll give you that."

"And the Emerald Spears could target us…"

"I'm sure they have families too…"

"It's a perfect opportunity."

"Not perfect, and not likely. Now come inside, I'm freezing…"

He stood his guard, much to Kalinka's dismay. Just as she started to leave, Boney spoke his omitted truth aloud. 

"I told you what I thought of Christmas the other day," he said, "that Christmas is nothing more than the celebration of the birth of a pacifist who lived long ago."

"And yet you told me that...that Christmas, to many, wasn't about that, but about family. About forgiveness and love and kindness. And that's why your father and you still celebrate this holiday despite your beliefs."

"Mhm." she said while rubbing her arms.

"And that's why you've invited everyone here. But, I ask you: what is there to forgive?"

Kalinka frowned. "Don't say that." She said, her voice cracking.

Boney shook his head and looked toward the parting clouds illuminating the horizon.

"I can't be there, Kalinka. Not after what I did. The least I can do is guard this place to ensure your safety."

"But Tut, I forgave you! Dad forgave you!"

"I," he paused, "wasn't referring to you two."

"Kalinka," said Mikhail, stepping out onto the balcony, "he means that many of our guests will be uncomfortable with him around. I don't think some of your brothers will be happy to see him either. It's a miracle some of them are coming at all." he said and put an arm around his little girl.

"But that's not fair! He'll be all alone here!" she said.

"We can't force him to come downstairs if he feels unwelcome and uncomfortable, no matter what we feel." he said.

Boney, much to his surprise, felt touched by Mikhail's words. "Thank you, doctor." he commented. "I've not detected any suspicious activity around, by the way."

Mikhail nodded. "Thank you, Bone Man." 

The three noticed the Sun, finally peeking out from the horizon. It's gift of light and heat was much appreciated by everyone all around the Citadel, from organics to synthetics. Kalinka smiled and grabbed a hold of Boney's hand. 

"Please, at least come down once. For me? We can watch a movie while everyone's asleep, or something."

Bone Man couldn't exactly smile, but he squeezed Kalinka's hand in assurance and nodded.

"I will." 

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Kalinka hugged Boney's thin body and headed back inside before her fingers went numb. Mikhail and Boney were left alone then. They didn't say anything to each other for a moment, both feeling discomfort. Boney was the one to break the silence.

"Doctor."

"Hm?"

"Do you think you can find it in your heart to forgive me, after what I did?"

Mikhail took a deep, cold breath before replying.

"I activated you after what you did. I gave you a home here. Isn't that forgiveness?"

"I...don't know. I can sense an animosity between us still."

Mikhail sighed. "Yeah. I feel it too."

"Then you don't forgive me."

"I don't know." he said bluntly. "All I know is that leaving you for dead was the wrong thing to do. It's not your fault that you were made for what I was forced to do."

"But what happened afterward was my fault."

"Yes, but," Mikhail paused, "you...I hurt you. What you did was my fault. I'm the one who put you to sleep."

"But I'm the one who destroyed your home." Bone said gravely.

Mikhail rubbed his eyes. He didn't know what else to say other than: "Do you still hate me?"

Boney remained silent. He shook his head, yet the silence spoke volumes to Mikhail. He nodded in response. 

"Alright." said Mikhail, "I'll leave you alone. But keep in mind: I didn't bring you back just to guard my home. I brought you back so you can enjoy life. When you're ready, you go and enjoy the party. Don't leave her waiting. Please."

Mikhail then left Boney to watch the sunrise, locked in his imaginary fortress of solitude as he heard Dust Man complain about something getting stuck in his "mouth" again. The first guest entered the grounds just then. Someone he had never met before: his little brother Tundra Man. And so it begins.


	2. Christmas Blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blues asks to accompany the Lalinde's to the citadel.

As the first guests were arriving at the cozy citadel, a lonesome red bot couldn't help but envy the bustling crowd he watched from above from the cold abandoned buildings of Mega City.

A few things grabbed his attention that night. There was an older couple carrying a video game console and putting in a present in the back of their car. Then, there were the screams of joy coming from behind him. The fair was back in town for Christmas as usual and along with it, all of those colorful machines that were entertaining even if one was simply watching from afar, rooting for that boy to get the most points in the boxing machine or counting the seconds until the elevator dropped and the people screamed. Finally, there was Chuck. Chuck was asleep under the blankets he'd left out for him, until a man he'd seen giving him food pulled up with his car next to him. Chuck was covering his face in kisses in an instant and, after putting a collar on him, Chuck was rescued from the streets. 

"Man, what I'd give to be a dog right now." said Louis at the other side of the room. Seeing that the bot didn't comment, he continued talking.

"You'd just have to look cute enough, be a good boy, and boom! New home! Just like that. You don't have to even work for them in return, just make them happy by just being there. Just existing. That's the life."

Louis couldn't visually tell, but he knew the humanoid bot was glaring at him from behind his shades. The bot could never tell whether Louis was wicked on purpose or without meaning to. Given his history, perhaps it was a bit of both.

"You know, Blues, was it Blues? You have a family who's willing to give you a home. I don't have that anymore. I'll have to spend my Christmas here alone, but you don't."

"There's still time." he continued. "Why don't you go with them?"

"And leave you alone this Christmas?" said Blues. "Not a chance."

"Bah! Don't you worry about me. This won't be my first Christmas alone. I'll be fine, no thanks to you." said Louis, and tapped his treasured couch, complete with pillows and blankets and more hidden underneath. 

Blues got up and took off his jacket. He walked up to Louis and gave it to him before assuring him: "I'll be back soon."

"You going then?"

"Yeah. I'm going. Who knows, maybe it'll be fun."

Louis' wretched teeth shone from behind his protective armament of beard, sweaters and blankets. 

"That a boy!" said Louis as he tapped Blues' grey shoulder. "Now get your metal ass over to Dr. Santa Claus!"

Blues smirked and gave Louis a tight, thankful hug and pat on the back. He left him alone in a hurry, so fast that he became a dark red blur sprinting between the people below. What a gift, thought Louis. What gifts that boy had and he wasn't at all grateful for them, or so it seemed. He certainly was grateful for Blues' presence. But all good things come to an end, he thought, and a blanket of sadness engulfed him that Christmas Eve.

As Blues approached the Light house, his pace slowed until he reached a halt from afar. It was completely dark, and there was no sign of any car. If he wasn't already used to it, Blues' would've thought a sunken heart was his core finally shutting down for good. He cursed under his breath and felt that he was going to cry, until he remembered what Roll had mentioned.

"Dr. Lalinde's family is going too. You sure you don't want to go?" Roll asked.

"I...I don't know." was all Blues' could muster at the time.

"We'll wait for you a bit longer if you decide to change your mind." Rock added, eyes as wide and sad as a puppy's. Blues found it harder and harder to leave his baby brother every time they met. He hated it because he knew what it meant: one of those days, he would have to stay for good, and that meant forgiving Dr. Light. Not a chance.

While he remembered that conversation, he was already running toward the Lalinde's neighborhood, taking every shortcut in the woods and in the urban jungle he knew about. When he finally arrived, he couldn't help but smile: there they were, Dr. Lalinde and Tempo bringing their luggage to a van. He had a chance. Question was whether the doctor would accept his request. After that incident with Tempo, Blues' chances were surely slim, he thought. 

Nevertheless, he slowly approached their house. With his acute hearing, Blues heard what Tempo and her mother talked about from afar (as well as a lot of other background noises that usually gave him a headache should his hearing be left on that particular mode). He crouched down behind a bush and listened.

"Ooo! I almost forgot! I'll be back in a bit, girls!" said Noele as she ran back inside.

"Okay." said Tempo in a monotone voice.

Blues saw Tempo close the back door of the van after putting the last of the luggage inside. Blues' gasped when he recognized what it was: one of those portable, electronic drum sets! Despite all he had been through, Blues' was still a child at heart. He thought about playing with Tempo the next time they met. Did she like blues? Rock and Roll? That hope would be dashed, however, if it belonged to-

"Boo!" said Vesper out of the blue. A mistake on her part since this prompted Blues to take a fighting stance, shield on one hand and gun in the other.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Chill buddy!" she shouted. "I don't sting!"

"Ugh! Don't do that." said Blues as he put away his shield and buster.

"But it's my theme. I can't say 'I don't bite', 'cause wasps and bees sting, not bite."

"That's not what I meant." he sighed.

"Whatever." she shrugged. "If you came to give Tempo a present or a kiss you better do it fast, 'cause we're taking a trip to-"

"Dr. Cossack's. I know."

Vesper's eyes widened. "How did you…"

"Have you been spying on us!" she yelled. 

"No, I-"

"Blues?" yelled Tempo.

Blues turned around and waved to her. Tempo quickly made her way over to him. It was then that Blues' noticed that they were both dressed rather elegantly. Surely, they were going straight to the citadel from the airport then. Tempo leaned more toward the casual side while Vespa had a red and black dress on.

"Hi, Tempo. You both look great." he murmured.

Vesper gasped while Tempo thanked him.

"A compliment!" said Vesper. "From Blues! I can't believe it!"

Blues rolled his head. "Oh, screw off!"

Vesper stuck her tongue out in retaliation.

"Cut it out!" Tempo said. "Blues, what are you doing here?"

Blues took in a deep breath. This is it. The sisters both took interest as he spoke. Blues' wasn't the type to hesitate when he wanted to say something.

"Well...I came here because...I was invited to Dr. Cossack's too, but...I mean, Dr. Light invited me since they were invited...but...I wasn't able to catch them on time...and…"

"And?" said Tempo.

"And you want us to give you a ride? Is that it?" said Vespa.

Blues couldn't muster the courage to ask that, especially with the glare Vesper was giving him.

"Hmph! Why should we trust you? You've worked for Wily before, how do we know you're not working for him now?" she added.

"Vesper." said Tempo.

"What, it's true! I don't mind him visiting, wait, no, I do mind after I learned what he's all about. But I'm not letting a rogue bot put us in danger. Again." said Vesper.

He took a moment to respond. Blues wasn't a liar, but the truth hurt to say and they didn't know him that well. Thank God for his shades, or he would've been looking down the entire time.

"Wily was using me, like he used the Light bots. He...I have a malfunction in my core. He lied to me...said he repaired it, but didn't, a-and he said that I needed to do what he said if I really wanted to get repaired for real…"

Vesper rubbed her head as Tempo stood there, afraid for her...friend? Acquaintance?

"Okay...if this is true, then...then what? We should take pity on you and...?" Vesper said.

"No! I...I don't want pity, I just…" Blues voice cracked. He couldn't take it anymore. "I don't know if this is my last Christmas, okay? I just want to spend it with my little brother and his family. I don't care if you forgive me or not! I just...please..."

Blues couldn't talk anymore. He had to take off his shades to rub his tears off of his face. Then, he let them fall onto Tempo's shoulders when she embraced him. Strong emotions still escaped her then, but her empathy was always plentiful.

As for Vesper, she couldn't decide what to do at that moment. Beg forgiveness? Demand more answers? Heck, accept his plea? What about all three? She thought she must've seemed like such a villain. But she couldn't accept that.

"Oh, c'mon! You're really gonna believe that?" she said to Tempo, who turned her head to frown at Vesper.

"Listen, Blues," Vesper started, "Even if that were true, who's to say that Wily didn't put some...some tracking device on you? He could be breaking out and using you to get to us. A-and," she paused, "who do you think you are asking that! We can't take a known criminal along with us on a plane!" 

"Sure, say it louder for everyone to hear. Let the police take him away so they can turn him into scrap metal!" said Tempo.

"No! She's right." Blues murmured. "This was stupid. Light knew how risky it was to take me on a plane too. He was just being nice…"

At that moment, Noele walked out of the house and locked it behind her. The look on her face said that she had overheard the conversation. When she reached them, Tempo begged her mother for him to go.

"Please, mom! Can he come with us? He has nowhere to go!" she said.

Noele had a sad look on her face as she looked at the three. 

"Mom," said Tempo, "what he said: is it true?"

Noele nodded sadly. Vesper and Tempo gasped and looked at each other, then to Blues worryingly. Blues simply stood there, paralyzed with sadness and fear. Noele noticed this and Blues noticed, in turn, the tears forming behind her glasses.

"Mom! He has to come then!" said Vesper, changing her tune, much to Blues' surprise. "H-he may be a jerk, but he...I don't want him to be alone."

"Please, please mom." said Tempo, her voice cracking. "Please forgive Blues. He didn't mean all those things he did, I know it."

"I know it too." said Noele as she rubbed her eyes. 

"Dr. Lalinde," Blues said trembling, "I know I have a lot of nerve asking this of you. But I just want you to know that I'm so sorry about what I've done. I'm sorry about punching your wall the other day and yelling at Tempo, I'm sorry I-"

"Shh!" said Lalinde. "Not another word, Blues." 

The three bots felt as if Lalinde was about to destroy Blues' with her next words. Instead, Blues' felt as if she had repaired his core with them.

"I'm not going to deny a boy from spending Christmas with his family, no matter what he did or didn't do. Of course you can come, Blues."

Lalinde then felt the extraordinary pressure of the three happiest robots on Earth squeezing her as tightly as possible without crushing her. Blues' felt a tremendous weight lifted from his chest as he kept saying "Thank you!" to Noele between the other thank yous from her daughters. She determined later that day that it was the best decision she had made all year.


	3. A familiar feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lalinde's have a conversation in the car while on their way to the airport.

It certainly had been quite a while since Blues' had been in a car. They were almost as bad as Wily Capsules. He couldn't even lay his legs on the other seats since Tempo and Vesper trapped him in the middle. But, it would have to do. At that moment, Blues lacked any teleportation device, and even if he did have one, it would be rude to simply drop in on Cossack's party unannounced.

As the car left the neighborhood, Blues' started to regret his decision. Did Cossack even invite him to the Christmas party? All he knew was that the Lights had invited him to tag along. Maybe they were just being polite. After all, he thought, Cossack wouldn't want to see the man who kidnapped his daughter. But I did rescue her later, didn't I? Did Cossack know that Break Man and Proto Man were one and the same? Then there's also the matter of the airport. There's no way they'll let him leave the country given his status, or even...

"Blues." said Tempo, interrupting his thoughts. "How are you feeling?"

"Hm! Oh, I'm feeling better." he smiled.

"Good." she smiled back. The Lalinde's seemed to have all silently agreed to avoid the topic about Blues' core for the moment. They all understood how cornered one feels in a car. Better not to worsen things by accidentally creating a situation. Instead, they all seemed to be enjoying the decorations around the city. It hadn't snowed in December for a long time in the region, but at least the snowmen animatronics and artificial snow gave the blankets around some stores the illusion of a pile of snow. Not to mention the chill

Blues then looked to Vesper's window. They were just passing Chuck's place. He hoped that he was faring well without him, and not just because of the cold. But he couldn't bring himself down with the look Vesper was giving him: something between a smirk and an inquisitive look.

"What?" asked Blues.

"Nothing." said Vesper.

"C'mon, spit it out."

"I'm happy for you. I thought you were so used to being Blues that you had lost the ability to cry." she said with a hint of concern and a pinch of surprise.

"Vesper." said Noele.

"Yes…?" said Vesper in the same motherly tone.

"Don't be rude to Blues. He fostered a lot of courage to ask to come with us."

"Yeah, he did. I'm almost proud." 

"Proud? You barely know me." said Blues.

"I know you enough to know that asking to come with us to a Christmas party is the hardest thing you've done this year." said Vesper.

Blues was somewhat dumbfounded. From the little he'd interacted with her, Vesper seemed to be impressively knowledgeable on emotions, something few robots were capable of. Then again, while her official purpose was to assist with botany and other related fields, her actual purpose is to provide emotional support to her mother and sister. It's as if a mother decided to have a second child so their first wouldn't be so lonely, Blues thought. But why then was Vesper so...pushy.

"It wasn't that hard…" Blues mumbled.

"Sure it wasn't." Vesper sighed.

"You did cry." said Tempo out of the blue. 

Jeez, and Blues thought he could be cruel. The Lalinde sisters were two different flavors of unconscious rudeness. Blues wondered if they took it from their mother somehow, though she certainly was much more mature. 

"Girls. Leave him alone." Noele said firmly.

Vesper pouted while Tempo turned her head in confusion.

"Sorry, mom." they parroted.

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Blues. You shouldn't tease him about what happened. It's impolite and he's been through enough turmoil this year."

"It's fine, doctor." Blues said. "I deserve a little teasing after what I've done."

Vesper sighed. If this bot was truly, literally dying inside, how could he talk about himself like that, despite what he did as Break Man? Heck, what he was forced to do.

"Stop talking about yourself like that." Vesper voiced her thoughts.

"I agree with Vesper. Don't be so hard on yourself." Tempo told Blues, then placing a hand over his own. Blues blushed as Vesper smirked at the scene.

"You know," said Vesper, "since you insist on being that way, you rescuing Kalinka has earned you this trip."

"If you say so." Blues said, then turned to Noele. "Doctor, I know I asked you to take me along, but… I'm worried about what will happen at the airport."

"That's right." said Tempo. "He'll be identified and...deactivated."

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I've got it taken care of." said Noele with a smile.

"How?" said Blues.

"Yeah, isn't Break Man wanted or something?" said Vesper.

"Break Man is dead, Vesper." 

"Oh, stop being so edgy Blues!"

"He means that Break Man was presumed dead when they found some pieces of him in the rubble, back when Gamma exploded." said Noele.

"Don't you remember?" said Tempo.

"Nope. Didn't care about the news, just my sister and my plants. I was just a newborn bot, right mom?" said Vesper.

"That's right. You were pretty conceited back then."

"They found traces of my armor and some of my belongings. I think most people don't know I used to be Break Man." said Blues. "That being said, they could identify me as Protoman and deactivate me anyway."

"What! Why!" said Vesper.

"Because I'm not working, Vesper."

"So!"

Tempo explained: "If a robot master can't function, they must be deactivated."

"But he does function!"

"Function as in have a job. I don't have one, so…"

"Tha….that's so unfair! You're a hero! There's so many jobless humans, how come they get to live, huh!"

"Vesper, calm down! Blues won't get deactivated at the airport." Noele affirmed.

"Why?"

"They can't deactivate a bot for taking free days. If that were true, well, I couldn't have brought Tempo to the robotics convention."

"I...what?" said Blues.

"All we have to do is establish that Protoman, Blues, will be working for- er, with me in the future. We can even say that he's working for us right now."

"Smart. Wait, what kind of work am I doing then?" said Blues. 

"Whatever you like."

Blues didn't know what to say. Even if it was a ruse, he didn't want to even pretend to be tied down. Still, it was the only way, but what to say...

"Blues, weren't you designed as a soldier bot?" asked Tempo.

And that did it. No use in picking a job so far removed from his design.

"Will bodyguard or security officer work then?" he asked.

"That's perfect! No one will suspect you." Noele said. "Oh, one more thing."

"What?"

"Your weapon systems will have to be deactivated. Either you allow me to turn them off beforehand or security will do it for you." she paused. "Is that all right?"

Blues panicked for a second. "But, what if someone attacks us on the plane?" 

"That's very unlikely, Blues." said Tempo. "Weapons are either confiscated or not brought in at all."

"Since when?" he asked.

"Most countries have had that policy for many years now." said Tempo, then added: "Have you ever been on a plane, Blues?"

"Of course! I remember soldiers and scientists taking all sorts of weapons into it."

"That's a military plane, dingus." said Vesper. "We're boarding a commercial craft. No weapons, no liquids, no food, no hair pins, no shampoo, no to any object that can be used to harm people. Honestly, I think robots like us are lucky to be passengers at all. Next thing you know, we're gonna be put in with the luggage."

"Don't jinx it, please…" said Tempo.

"Oh. Well then. Hopefully, humans figure out how to teleport themselves over longer distances soon." Blues added.

"I hope so. No offense to your people mom, but you guys have somehow managed to make flying boring." Vesper groaned.

"It saves money apparently." said Noele.

"And it's so packed, ugh!"

"How packed?" asked Blues.

"Oh, you'll see." Vesper teased. "If you don't like cars, you'll hate commercial planes."

Blues was already dreading it.

"I'm surprised you know about all this and yet you didn't know that jobless robots get deactivated under federal law." said Blues.

"And you thought people could actually board weapons on a plane. The thought of a jobless robot never occured to me before. Besides, when have you ever heard of a jobless robot?"

Before Blues retorted, he remembered the Wily bots that chose to be deactivated some time ago. He couldn't decide whether to tell her, or whether she knew about them, but Vesper decided for him before he finished that train of thought. Seems his face was easy to read despite his shades.

"Ok, I can tell that you have, I'm sorry I didn't know about that," she said, then added cheerily, "but if you ever want to know about pollinators and which plants they like, you know who to call. That I'm an expert in!"

Tempo then added: "And if you want to know where to find certain resources underground, I'll be happy to share that info with you."

"Thanks." said Blues, thinking himself undeserving of their offers. "Hmm, I actually do have to ask you something Tempo."

"Y-yes?"

"That drum kit, is it yours?"

"You saw it? Yes, it is! Mom gave it to me for my birthday!"

"She's been playing it every day, every chance she gets." said Noele.

"Playing it." Vesper snickered.

"Hey! I've gotten better!" 

"I know you have but you still make such a racket, ugh!"

"You know you sound like an old lady when you say that. Liven' up." 

"Ha ha!" said Blues.

Vesper pouted. Couldn't believe Tempo was actually telling her that…

"So...do you play any instruments?" asked Tempo.

Blues hesitated, but ultimately decided to answer.

"I learned to play the guitar when I was younger."

"Let me guess? Daddy named you Blues because that's the type of music you liked." said Vesper. Much to her surprise however, Blues confirmed it.

"Yes." he said.

Vesper wheezed at his casual confirmation of such a fact. Tempo followed suit with quiet giggles that made Blues sink into his chair. Personally, he never found that fact to be embarrassing, but now that Vesper and Tempo were laughing at it, he was almost as red as his helmet. 

"Girls!" Noele shouted. "That's enough!"

"But it's funny! That's like...wait…" said Vesper.

"I think that's a pretty name." said Tempo. Blues didn't feel any better.

"Oh my god! Rock and Roll…"

The other three passengers looked at Vesper for a quick glance before snickering at the bot's sudden realization. Vesper laughed along with them.

"That's so embarrassing! Why would Dr. Light do that! Naming your children pun names, UGH!" Vesper complained. 

"Vesper." said Noele. "You know your sister's name is…"

Silence. Now Tempo was the one turning red.

"Why haven't I noticed that until now!" said Vesper, pulling at her antennae. "I have a photographic memory, I can shoot poison darts, I can fly, but I never thought about my sister's name being a damn music term!"

"Intelligence is a funny thing." said Noele.

Blues felt a bit better then, so he went back to the original topic. "Tempo, I can also whistle pretty well." 

"Yes, we've all heard it. Instead of a catchphrase, Proto Man whistles a weird song like some phantom scaring criminals at night before coming in for the kill." said Vesper.

"It's not a weird song. It's a melody I heard once when I was traveling." Blues explained.

"So it's not yours?" asked Tempo curiously.

"Well...truth is, I've added notes to it and turned it into something of my own. The full song is a lot longer."

"I see." 

They were silent for just a moment. Vesper knew what was coming and smiled to herself when she heard it.

"Maybe we could play together sometime, if you want." said Blues. Noticing that Noele raised an eyebrow, he added: "And if your mom is cool with it."

"Can he come over to play, mom?" Tempo said excitedly, much to everyone's surprise.

"I'll allow it, but no playing past 11." said Noele after a scary pause.

"Yay!" squealed Tempo, much to the other two bots' enjoyment, though Vesper still found room for complaints.

"Ugh, I can just imagine how horrible it will sound. All those wrong notes and out of tempo beats." 

Vesper conjured up a devious grin thinking of some joke to tell about being in tempo. With just a glare, Vesper could tell that Tempo had read her mind.

"Don't." said Tempo as Vesper opened her mouth.

"I didn't say anything." said Vesper, then whispered next to them. "I just hope you two don't make so much noise that I'll hear it over the music."

Tempo, despite her muted emotions, looked like she was ready to kill Tempo. If Blues hadn't turned read before, he definitely turned red then and there, making Vesper grin wickedly. Luckily, before a fight started in the car, Noele parked the car in the airport and shot Vesper an angry glance that made the bot recoil in fear. 

Blues took a deep breath and sighed. Then, he smiled, relieved that he got out of the car, but also because he had missed that familiar feeling that he hadn't felt since he was living with Dr. Light: the feeling of belonging.


	4. On Thin Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tundra rehearses a little something for later that day. Then, Cossack receives a call.

Tundra man was the first guest to arrive. There was never a dull moment with him, practically every moment with company was part of an imaginary performance for the icy bot much to Kalinka's delight. They welcomed each other at the gate playing the parts of the returning knight and the princess. Much to his gratitude, Kalinka complimented Tundra's attire. Sticking to the holiday theme without diverting too much from his own signature look, Tundra dressed in a royal red jacket with his icey accessories. Thank goodness she liked it after he'd worried about his look all night. Kalinka, in turn, wore her favorite red jacket, a green scarf, and a red hat. Not too shabby.

Unfortunately for Tundra, Kalinka, spoiled princess she was, demanded that he perform for her "Right this instance!" as soon as the topic of figure skating was brought up.

"B-but, your highness!" he complained. "I can't perform without a big enough audience!"

"True. Well, could you rehearse for me, at least, pleaaaaase?" she asked.

"Oh yes, that I can do. But why don't we catch up first as we skate?"

Half an hour later, after greeting Doctor Cossack and checking out the renovated place, Kalinka and Tundra Man went to the back of the citadel to skate together hand in hand. (Unsurprisingly, Skull Man refused to see his brother when Kalinka asked him. His argument for Tundra was that he had never even met him and therefore must have a bad impression of Skull Man based on news and gossip alone. Kalinka left with a frown and furrowed brow. Nevertheless, Tundra didn't ask to see Skull Man and so Kalinka never asked him so as to not make the situation more awkward). The siblings lapped the pond about 10 times while catching up about his time in Franz Josef land and Kalinka's homeschooling.

"You're so lucky you get to visit those places." said Kalinka.

"Well, they may be faraway islands, but they're still part of the Arctic. Such a rigid, brutal ocean can never allow her islands to flourish like their tropical sisters. They're simply barren. It's a lonesome existence for us up there." Tundra said dramatically.

"Same goes for me. It's just me, my dad, and his colleagues. Nobody to play with." she pouted.

"What a shame what our father did to you. To be imprisoned in the citadel 'for your own good'."

"Yeah…"

"Yet I remember when you told me you hated school. And I remember telling you in response...I've always found school fascinating. I was born knowing so much, and yet humans spend more than a decade learning it all."

"But you've never been in school. School is like being imprisoned too, but...at least you have all sorts of people to talk and play with. I even miss some of the good teachers. I feel like some of them were like...like my parents away from home. I can't believe I actually miss school." she frowned.

Tundra pitied her. "And yet.. it sounds like you miss the people and not the school itself."

"Yeah, yeah!" she looked up to him. "I miss you guys too...You guys don't visit us as much as before..."

"Oh, come here!" Tundra picked her up and held her above the ground. Her sour frown turned into a sweet grin and their languid skate turned into a pair's routine. 

"Tundra, don't drop me!" she squealed as he held her up above him.

"I promise I won't! And I promise I'll do everything I can to visit more often!" he said as he lunged to the other side of the pond. Kalinka spread out her arms and pretended to be a superhero flying towards the citadel as her father approached them with a wide grin on his face. 

"Kalinka, Tundra, we have more company!" he shouted.

Yes, it would seem that the audience Tundra seemed to desire for his rehearsal had finally arrived.

The first bot to arrive at the pond was Ring Man. Since his normal look was already in theme, Ring Man simply decided to add some accessories to his crimson armor: a red and gold Santa hat that stood at attention constantly (thanks to his strange head ornament already attached to his head), and some red gems to the decorative chakris on his forearms and legs.

"My, how beautiful you look Ring!" Tundra said.

"Uh, thanks Tundra. You look pretty good yourself." Ring said a tad nervously.

"They look like bracelets. So pretty!" said Kalinka. Ring's face flushed in embarrassment every time someone would complement (and occasionally make fun of) his chakris. It was a stark contrast to Tundra's pride and joyful reactions to his own skate attire.

Behind him came a small group of robot masters who had been all working together in an Arctic Oil Rig: Dive Man, Oil Man, and Ice Man. None had a chance to get a dapper outfit for the party, so they all conformed to getting Santa hats, all except Ice Man who refused to reveal his head to anyone and that meant conforming to wearing a collar of colored lights instead.

Last but not least: Toad Man. Not much to say about him, other than the fact that he was freezing, so he wore an "ugly", pretty red sweater that matched his Santa hat, as well as a yellow scarf eerily similar to Proto Man's.

Kalinka was more than overjoyed to see them all come home, and to finally meet Ice and Oil Man, who liked the positive attention from the pretty girl a little too much. She complimented them all on their outfits and told them to come gather around the pond, where Tundra bowed to them and began his icy dance.

Tundra's rehearsal was, to say the least, breathtaking. His form was nearly perfect, his moves smooth and on cue with the music Kalinka played for him, and his jumps were exemplary, despite having botched a couple of them, visibly frustrating him. But hearing his family cheer him on kept him going to the end.

"Tundra's practically a professional at this point." said Cossack.

"Oh, yes! No one dances better than Tundra man!" Tundra boasted.

His audience collectively cringed. Ring rolled his eyes, though they quickly went back to Tundra's form. He wished he had that type of balance. So too thought Dive Man, though his attention went to Tundra's body...but not in that way! Dive was simply self conscious about his bulky body and it irked him to see how...gorgeous Tundra seemed to be to some humans. Oil Man thought his moves were ok. Henever payed much attention to this particular sport. Toad Man was still cringing, not at Tundra's ego, but at the cold. God, how he wished Fire or Pharoah Man were there to warm him up. But he needed to support his brother, so he endured the chill. Overall, everyone thought the rehearsal was a nice show. Except for Ice Man.

Ice Man smiled at Tundra, but underneath his cute face was a growing envy mixed with overwhelming adoration that was melting his cold heart. Part of him wanted to materialize his skates and show the Cossack's that he too could skate. Hell! He bet he could land those jumps much better than Tundra could!...even if he hadn't practiced for years. But mostly, he just wanted to show off to Tundra specifically. And he couldn't tell if it was envy, jealousy, love, or what mixture of emotions he felt when he saw Tundra, but dangit! He was getting overshadowed again, and this time in his own field, well, his own theme!

Ice was practically ready to jump in and one up him at the end, lack of practice be damned, when Dust Man unexpectedly arrived at the scene. The poor guy had been working for so long that he was recharging until the start of Tundra's rehearsal and, when he noticed what was going on, he sprinted in a panic towards the pond. But when he got there, Tundra had already finished, and Dust Man realized too late that he wasn't built for running so fast. So he face planted straight onto the frozen pond and broke through the edge of the frozen water, and what followed was a domino effect: Dust Man breaks the ice, the cracks reach Tundra's position, and finally, Tundra falls through the ice.

"UWAAH!" said Tundra as he fell through. Ice Man couldn't help but chuckle. Turns out karma gave him the satisfaction he craved, even though he had to cut it short so as to not be impolite. 

"Tundra!" yelled Kalinka. Before she could do something stupid, she was pulled back by her father and onto the safe ground. Then, Ring Man took off one of his non-decorated chakris and threw it towards Tundra, which turned out to be an inflatable attached to a long strand of rope.

"Dust Man, you clutz! The stage is ruined!" Tundra yelled as he was pulled out of the hole with ease.

"Sorry!" Dust yelled while somewhat submerged still. Lucky for him, Dive Man was built to withstand temperatures much colder than that particular body of water was at.

And so, after Dust and Tundra man's rescue, Mikhail declared that no one shall use the pond today for any more activities. It looked like the only possibility for a performance would have to be indoors, and luckily the Citadel had an area that wasn't too shabby for Tundra. 

Soon, everyone started to head back inside to warm up, especially Dust, who needed to empty his systems of water and heat them up. Kalinka joked about pouring hot chocolate down his mouth. So, as usual, he threw a tantrum about his sensitive systems and heated up. Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, Ice Man drummed up the courage to talk to Tundra.

"Hey, Tundra. Um, you were pretty great over there. Nice to meet you. Ice Man!" Ice fumbled over his words.

Tundra shook his hand. "A pleasure Mr. Ice Man, though we technically already met before the rehearsal."

"Y-yes, well, I like to shake anyway when I meet new people. A-anyway! I just wanted to tell you that I also skate and w-was wondering if...i-if you would like to skate together, you know? I-I mean, like, at least practice, you know…" Ice Man was melting his cooling systems with his own embarrassment.

Tundra chuckled and ruffled the little bot's hoodie. "Why of course! I don't mind at all! We've got plenty of time and, between you and me, I like this party but I don't feel comfortable being around so many people, you know…"

"Oh, I believe me I know how that feels!" Ice beamed.

"Then let's, well, not ditch the party, but we'll use the excuse to practice to make ourselves absent." he whispered.

"Hell yeah!" Ice said and they headed for the indoor rink after commenting to Kalinka where they would be.

Kalinka watched them gleefully dash back inside with a warm grin as she took off her skates. 

"Man, I wish I could take my skates off as fast as those too…" she commented to her father as he received a call. 

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Noelle." he commented.

"Santa?" she joked.

Mikhail snickered as he answered the call.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Hi, Mik! How are things over there?"

"Splendid. Tundra and Dust Man already fell through the pond."

"Oh God! Are they all right." she laughed.

"Of course, Dust is just annoyed and Tundra already invited Ice to skate inside. Did you board yet?"

"No."

"Oh no, is the flight late?"

"Luckily, it is."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...I had to take care of some paperwork beforehand."

"Something come up with security?"

"You could say that, yes. Someone wanted to come with us and I had to buy a ticket last minute. Among other things…"

"Oh? Who?"

"...Blues."

"Blues..."

"Yes."

"The same bot that kidnapped my daughter wants to come to my party."

"Mik, you know he was forced to."

"He was forced to because he chose to work with him, Noele."

Kalinka got close to her father upon noticing his stern expression.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Kalinka whispered.

"One sec. It's nothing, uh...it's Dr. Lalinde, she's having some trouble on the airport…"

"Is she still coming?" asked Kalinka.

"Shh, I'll tell you in a minute."

"I don't understand. I thought you had invited him along with Thomas' family." said Noelle.

"...Thomas was gonna bring him?" Mik's eyes widened.

"Yes. I thought he told you."

"Oh, that…" he sighed.

"Mik, you know how complicated things are with Blues."

Silence.

"You know...Skull Man-"

"Noelle don't!...Noelle, that's different. I know Skull. I don't know what goes on through that bot's head. I don't know him. I don't even know if Thomas knows his own son anymore..."

"But I do Mik. He visits us from time to time. We talk. He's...he's not a bad person. He's shown great regret. He was just...manipulated."

"But he did it all anyway." he said bitterly, "All he had to do was go to Dr. Light's to get repairs, but he chose to do what he did and ended up working with Albert because of it. What if he has a tracking device on him?"

"D-dad, is Blues coming?" Kalinka looked hopeful. Mikhail looked away bitterly from his daughter's puppy dog eyes. 

"Security and I already checked that," Noelle continued, "Mik, listen: I'm not going without Blues. I've been giving him monthly check ups and...if he insists on not getting the operation before the month ends...this will be his last Christmas. I'm not leaving a kid alone for it." 

Mik's heart sank as his own words of hate and fear came back to bite him hard.

"Papa! Please let him come! He's a good guy, he was just confused and scared and Wily could've killed him. Let him come! Please! Please! Please!" Kalinka begged.

I'm not letting him near you, he thought. I can't. I can. I shouldn't. What is that boy capable of? If he's capable of kidnapping you, of attacking his own brother, he's capable of so much worse. Who knows what else he's done, Kalinka!

"Mik, please, he's just a kid. Heck, most of them still are." Noelle laughed nervously. "He hasn't seen his brothers in a while and you know how hard it is to bring the masters together sometimes…"

"Papa, please! Let him come! He's my friend!" Kalinka cried.

Mikhail was already planning out the lecture he'd give Kalinka later. Yet, he knew deep down that life had been so unfair to Blues. And despite what he was: he wasn't that much older than Kalinka. What if Kalinka had been the one to do those things? He would've forgiven her, just as he had done with Boney…

To be honest, he thought, maybe I would've done the same mistakes in his shoes. So, would he take the risk? He had to. Besides, he had so many people to help in case he tried anything funny. So, he let go of some tension with a heavy sigh, and said: "Alright, alright. It's fine...you're...you're right. Of course he can come." he said.

Kalinka jumped in place like Toad Man did when he was happy, so joyfully and full of gratitude. She thanked her father around 10 times, hugged him and kissed his cheek too many times to count. 

"Thank you, Mik." added Noelle. "We're just on time to board too. See you later. Really, thank you." 

And she hung up. And Mik hugged Kalinka back.

"Now don't you dare be alone with him." he said to her.

"I won't, don't worry! He's a good guy, really."

"I hope so." Mik said. Just as he said it, Skull thought it. He had been watching everything from afar, enjoying every moment of the rehearsal as if he were there with them. It looked so fun...but he couldn't be there. Not yet. 

"Ho ho ho!" said a man at the entrance. Skull Man tapped into one of his Joe's feeds as soon as they heard it. Oh dear. It couldn't be. 

"Ho ho ho!" said the bearded man. 

It was: Saint Nick himself had arrived at the Citadel.


	5. Cabin Cry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tempo comforts Blues when he starts to get stressed over the party.

If Blues was uncomfortable in the car, then he was practically anxious in the plane. He didn't understand how most humans liked the take off so much and then quickly fell asleep even when they were more than 20000 feet above the ground. Though to be fair, Noelle explained that most of them hadn't slept much before boarding, herself included. At least he was in the plane, he thought. The boarding process wasn't at all kind to them, but luckily, that part was behind them...until they had to go back, of course.

Proto sat in between the two sisters like he did in the car. The only difference between the vehicles, he felt, was being surrounded by dozens of strangers and the fact that he couldn't jump out of it should he be attacked, even though that was very unlikely to happen. At least, that's what he was told. 

Truth be told, it wasn't so much the plane making him feel so nervous, but rather the destination. The closer they came to Russia, the greater his sense of dread of what could happen at the Citadel.

On the cluster of seats to the left, on the seat closest to them, Noelle had already fallen asleep. Next to her, a couple of humans watched a movie on a small screen attached to the seat in front of them. Blues thought it cool at first, yet after a few minutes of browsing he realized that nothing in the catalogue caught his attention. Shame, no Christmas movies at all. What was he to do then?

Vesper had, miraculously, fallen asleep to his right, head leaning against the window that showed nothing but a dark sky and grey clouds. It looked pitch black behind his own shades (let's not even bring up the almost tantrum Blues formed when he was ordered to take off his glasses for security. He nearly gave Noelle a panic attack). 

Tempo was also asleep, wasn't she? Turns out that she wasn't, because when Blues looked towards her, she looked back with barely closed eyes. Turns out she was about to fall asleep listening to something calming.

Blues smiled, and Tempo smiled back as she took off her headphones.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Nothing. Just thought I was the only one awake." he whispered back.

"You're not tired?"

"I am."

"Why don't you sleep, then?"

Blues' smile disappeared. 

"Are you nervous about the party?" 

He nodded.

"Why are you nervous, exactly?"

"Well, first of all, right now I feel trapped. I feel like cargo being shipped to Russia. I can't even move my legs. They might as well have put me with the luggage." he tried to laugh and failed.

"Is that all?" 

"'Course not." he said, in that tone that to anyone else would've meant, "Are you joking? What kind of question is that?" But Tempo was Tempo, so he had to be patient and honest.

"I'm going to a party hosted by a man who's daughter I kidnapped. I'm going to see my father for the first time since I ran away. On top of all that, he and your mom are probably going to try to convince me to do you know what, and I don't want my core to have a meltdown, but I also don't trust them to touch my insides, but..."

He paused to avoid breaking down. Then he added another joke, as if doing that would make it all better.

"Plus, I've never been to a party before, I mean, what do you even do there, you know, just talk and...talk and drink but I don't drink..."

Tempo furrowed her brow and gave him a side hug. Blues thought it was a bit of a breach of personal space, but Tempo seemed to think null of it. They were close enough already that it wasn't a big deal. It definitely helped when a tear escaped his eyelids and he hoped that Tempo couldn't see it. But by the way that she rubbed his arm, she definitely did. So, he ended up sobbing silently into her jacket, trembling and sighing so as to not make a scene.

"Everything will be ok. The Cossacks are nice and I've met your father. He would never do that to you." she whispered.

"I know that, but I don't wanna seem like… I'm going to enter the party and everyone is gonna be talking about me. Or at least thinking about me. Cossack is gonna have his eye on me the whole time. I...I don't think I should've done this." his voice cracked.

Tempo looked over to Noelle and made sure she was asleep.

"Well first of all, I'll remind you that all sorts of robot masters will be there, including your brother. I don't think you'll be the center of attention there with them around."

"Right." Blues wiped his tears off.

"Second: I'm going to go against my mother's wishes and tell you something I think you should know. Maybe it will make you feel better."

"What?"

"I overheard my mother talking with Dr. Cossack. He knows you're coming and he knows about your condition, about Break Man and Proto Man. Based on the tone of his voice, he was conflicted about you coming, but he and Kalinka ultimately wanted you to come regardless of what you did."

Blues didn't know what to say. Tempo continued.

"I don't think your past is as secret as you want it to be, but even then, there are many people who truly care for you." she paused. "Could you promise me something?"

"Hm?"

"Could you at least...consider asking them while we're there. And if they say yes, I promise you, I'll be watching the whole time."

Tempo felt him freeze up. He took about a whole minute to answer.

"There's no guarantee it will work." he finally said, much to her relief.

"But with the three of them…" she paused. "I-I don't think I can express it well, but I'll be….I'll be grieving you a long time if you refuse."

Blues fell silent again.

"I feel like I'm finally connecting with someone, like I finally have a friend. I don't want to lose him so soon." her voice cracked.

Tempo couldn't look at him directly. Despite the lack of tears, she could feel her heart breaking. She could practically feel Blues' gaze breaking her apart.

"Tempo: thank you." he said.

"For what?" she asked, perplexed.

"For telling me this. I'm sure your mom and your sister told you to keep quiet to not make me feel bad but," he paused, "I think it's the best thing anyone's ever told me all year."

"Why? I don't understand."

Blues smiled. "I don't think I've ever had a friend before either. I want to feel how that's like."

"Does that mean…?"

"I'll… I'll try. But It'll help if you're with me when I ask, please."

Tempo sighed with relief and grinned.

"Of course. You're welcome, by the way."

Blues shifted so he was resting his head against her shoulder.

"I think I'll try to get some sleep too." he said. Tempo followed suit and leaned her head against him. 

"Same." she said. "You don't mind Vesper seeing us like this?"

"Nah. Let her have her fun. I feel right at home here." he teased. Tempo blushed. 

"Me too." she whispered and rested her head against his.

They slept all the way to Russia.


	6. Santa in the Citadel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saint Nick himself visits the citadel. There he gives many presents, including a very special, Cossack present to a very special boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize that I haven't finished this for Christmas, but I WILL finish this work and will be working on it continously till it's finished~.

"Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" 

As soon as the children at the party heard those iconic words, they all rushed outside to greet the big man himself. Heck even the older kids came along, despite knowing the sad truth. Papa Noel was simply too jolly and nostalgic for even the most moody teens. And of course the adults played along, though some laughed amongst themselves when they recognized who it actually was by his beard alone.

Yes, Santa came to the Cossack Citadel as he normally would: clad in a red jacket, cap, and pants; black boots, a big belly, rosy cheeks and a thick, white beard. Of course, his sweet smile was the most important feature of all. A giant, red bag slung over his shoulder threatened to crush the man as he slogged along, but luckily he had some help.. Behind him was a robot deer with a red nose looking around the place curiously, sniffing the new environment. It was, indeed, a robot with an anatomically correct deer body, down to artificial hairs and big antlers decorated with white lights that looked spiritual from afar. Following along beside the robotic Rudolph were two young robot elves. They looked to be blond twins, a girl and a boy, both the same height, both blue eyed, with pointed ears and green clothing complementing Santa's attire. Now, while the girl looked as jolly as Father Christmas, the boy seemed to have a tired look to him, as if he were thinking intensely behind a soft smile. Nevertheless, they both enjoyed doing this: visiting the children, seeing them and the adults smile when they handed out the extra presents (because, according to Santa, the elves had made an overabundance of presents, so he decided to visit several places in advance to give them out).

"Why is Rudolph a robot?" asked a little girl.

"Ho! This isn't Rudolph, this is Ralphie, a robot deer made for when the animal deer are too tired or too sick to run on Christmas Eve. But don't worry! The real Rudolph is just fine and ready to go tonight! I brought Ralphie along so that Rudolph wouldn't get tired before the big night." he explained.

The girl grinned and scratched the deer, who evidently enjoyed the attention by raising his head and closing his eyes. The girl couldn't help but give a wider smile, but wonder why a deer would pant so often like a dog. Maybe it was a glitch. But she thought it rude to point it out. Luckily, the others thought similarly and said nothing. A miracle for sure.

"Jingle, Jangle, help me take out some of these presents, please." he said jovially. Each present was, of course, wrapped and tagged with the child's name and came in all shapes and sizes. When asked why Santa had robot elves instead of "real" ones, he shook his head as if to review the question and said: "Why not?" Seeing the elves help carry some heavier presents to the tree inside and the cars parked nearby was enough of an answer for the others. Those who asked simply kept quiet. Not many people who judged in the Citadel anyway.

Meanwhile, at the entrance guard booth,  
a group of construction based robot masters had just arrived, which included the rest of the original Light bots plus Drill Man, who was also working with them on a big project a continent away. However, they couldn't go inside yet, not because of anything bad though. It was simply that Guts Man was using the booth window to make sure that his precious bow tie, red and golden which complemented his body's recent paint job done just for the season, was put on as close to perfection as possible.

"C'mon, Guts! We're already late!" said Time.

"Hey, it's not my fault the plane was late." he said, somewhat satisfied with his look. He turned and saw his pink brother's own green bow tie and elf hat askew. 

"Here, let me fix yours." Guts said, already adjusting it. Time whacked his hand away and continued to complain.

"Gah, we're missing the party!" he said, adjusting his things himself. "I look fine!"

"Yeah, c'mon Guts," said Elec, "it's gonna get crooked anyway."

"Hey, at least I care about looking my best for this." said Guts, referring to Elec Man's singular collar of Christmas lights. 

"And I told you that I already look my best." said Elec.

"You certainly didn't do your best." said Guts.

"Ooo, what a burn." said Fire as Bomb laughed. Elec groaned then said: "Look who's talking." He was referring to their own cheap collars.

Though they could order clothes that fit them, most of the robot masters felt comfortable just putting on one of, or multiple, simple things like Santa hats and light up collars. The exceptions were Cut and Time, who both wore adorable green sweaters; and Guts with the paint job. Others wished they could do more, but had their reasons not to. For example, Fire Man wished he could put on a Santa hat, but then if he got excited it would simply incinerate. Bomb felt that a paint job was worthless in his line of work. His own original colors had to be painted on again pretty frequently already, and so, when Guts announced their invitation to the party, he didn't want to be painted again just three days after his most recent appointment. It was awful having to stand in place for so long. Finally, there was Drill and Elec: their colors are already in theme so they put in the most minimal effort possible. Elec was doubly motivated to do almost nothing when Drill insisted that it was a casual party, a fun family thing the Cossack's had done for years and not some elegant ball or a dance club. Nevertheless, almost all of the bots were determined to look their best with the limited budget they were given (hence why Gutsy insisted and ended up paying for everything) and the effort that their Christmas spirit motivated them to make.

"Is this ok?" asked Guts for the 3rd time, it seemed.

"Yes!" they all shouted.

"Alright! Time to party!" Guts cheered.

"The time to party was over two hours ago!" Time screeched.

"Oh yeah, then explain that." said Cut.

Cut Man, perched on Guts' shoulder, pointed to the front door of the main building, spotting the merry commotion in between the pines' foliage. He couldn't quite make out why so many people were gathered there, but from the sounds of it, there wasn't any danger. Time jumped up onto Guts' other shoulder and said: "Look at what we're missing by being late."

"Oh relax, Time." said Drill. "There's no punishment for being late."

"He'll lighten up when he's reunited with Oil. Two are inseparable." said Bomb.

Then, a voice from behind them exclaimed: "I'll brighten his day right now!" 

Suddenly, a barrage of blue, red, yellow, and red lights attacked them from behind. It was none other than Bright Man himself, proudly displaying his giant, color changing lightbulb to the group. Apparently, he and Pharaoh Man had silently arrived behind them, also arriving as a duo from a mission of exploration.

"Ugh, Bright! That's enough!" pleaded Pharoah. As soon as Bright turned it off, he frowned, for he noticed that the group had also been partially blinded. Time Man was anything but jolly, anticipating more delays from this new encounter. He grumbled and pouted and sighed and formed a tantrum on Guts' sturdy shoulder.

"Sorry, everyone. I could only pick industrial." he said.

"It's fine! Don't worry about it!" said Guts, followed by a chorus of similar remarks and greetings from the rest of them, and what seemed to be a low growl of annoyance from Elec. Yet, he had to admit his thoughts to one up Guts.

"Now that's cool. Way better than any paint job." said Elec as he approached Bright. His brothers became wary immediately.

"Relax, I'm just talking." Elec said, then explained to the Cossack bots: "I agreed to not pull any pranks today."

"You promised." said Fire.

"I promised nothing." said Elec, earning a chuckle from Cut. Guts rolled his eyes and Elec, noticing a reaction, approached Pharaoh.

"Now this is way better than a sweater! Where'd you get this cape? Is it an artifact?" asked Elec.

"An artifact from a place with great history, known for providing ancient clothing and accessories from all over the world," Pharaoh narrated dramatically, "as well as paper plates and hats."

The crowd chuckled. Elec Man felt a blow to his ego, until both Bright and Pharaoh thanked him for the compliments.

"C'mon, now can we go?" asked Time. 

"Go where?" asked Kalinka, appearing out of the blue, or rather, out of the white and green. 

"Jesus!" Time jumped in surprise, activating the bells on his head. What followed was a disturbingly loud, classic alarm sound that was almost as grating for the senses as Bright's lightbulb accompanied by Time activating his powers. Everyone was suddenly in slow motion.

"Wooooooooow! IIIIIIIIII thooooooought thoooooose weeeeere deeeecoooooraaaatiiiiiive!" yelled Drill with a slow chuckle. Up until that point, Drill hadn't seen Time's powers in action since there weren't any emergencies in the sight.

"The-e-e-e-e-e-y're n-o-o-o-o-o-o-t!" he stuttered quickly. Guts had to give him a little bonk on the head to stop him. With a collective sigh of relief and an, "Ouch!" from Time, he then turned to the source of his surprise and said: "Jeez, lady! Have some consideration! My body glitches when I get startled and I need help to stop it." 

"Sorry." she said. "I saw Bright's light show from afar and walked over here, but nobody noticed me."

"I did, but I wanted to see what happened." Bomb chuckled, earning a collective groan and a fist bump from Cut. Time was becoming a growing ball of grumpy energy while Kalinka greeted the bots and hugged her brothers joyfully. Noticing his grump, Kalinka turned to him and assured: "Don't worry, the party's just beginning! Nobody will come right on time or stick around anyway. A lot of people have other places to spend Christmas with their families. Besides: Dr. Light and Dr. Lalinde haven't arrived yet."

Guts looked surprised at this revelation. "But Dr. Light's plane arrived before ours. He even said he was on his way half an hour ago."

"40 minutes, to be exact." said Time.

"Well," Kalinka laughed, "to tell you the tru-"

Suddenly then, and without warning, Cut Man screamed, for he saw what the commotion was all about. 

"It's SANTAAAAAAA!" He jumped down and ran toward the jolly man who was departing the Citadel en route to the North Pole with his helpers. Unfortunately for him, Time's alarm system activated once again because of this, and Guts was forced to jab him a bit too hard that time. Down went Time Man onto a pile of snow as Guts apologized and half of the bots laughed.

"Santa! Santa! Santa!" Cut yelled in midair.

The red saint was tackled from the side by a green and orange blur that made him lose balance and fall down. Cut was one of the lighter bots, but he was still pretty heavy. One of the elves almost summoned some sort of buster but then quickly hid it when he noticed who it was. Rudolph screached, stumbled back, and dropped the then lighter bag on top of Jingle. While her brother helped her up and quickly put the presents back, Santa greeted the young fellow.

"Woah ho ho!" Santa laughed. "Hello, Cut Man!" 

"You know my name!" Cut asked.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?" he said.

"Well, I'm a robot, not a kid."

"Oh, that doesn't matter, my boy! I've got presents for all boys and girls, human or not! In fact, I've got something just for you." said Santa, reaching for the bag from Jangle's grasp.

Cuts' eyes lightened up with cheer as Santa pulled out a wrapped up box, big and light enough to indicate that it held multiple presents inside. As Santa handed it to him, Cut thanked him again.

"You're welcome, my boy. As for one of these presents, make sure you ask your father to help you install it." he winked. Cut gasped. A new upgrade! 

"Well, I best ought to be going, my boy. I need to get ready for tonight! Merry Christmas!" he turned and headed for one of the Citadel's exits.

"Bye Santa!" Cut said as they all vanished. He ran back to the main group that was already making their way inside the main building. Before he knew it, however, Time Man had used his powers to throw a snowball right onto his face. Then, Cut hit him back with one of his own. He was a master at this. But then Elec hit Cut. Then Guts punched a pine and Elec was buried in snow...along with half of the bots. A miscalculation on Guts' part. Before they knew it, a snowball fight had started in the middle of the Citadel the likes of no one had ever seen, the likes of which I'll tell in the next chapter. Firstly, however, while all of that chaos was growing, Santa and his jolly helpers didn't actually leave, but rather they snuck inside one of the laboratories, aided by the staff, to change back into civilian clothing. Jangle took a deep breath to cool off as they walked the large hallway.

"I almost blew my cover when Cut Man tackled you, dad." said Jangle.

"It certainly was startling!" he replied, still in character. "It's nice to see Cut Man be his happy self after all these years. I wonder how the others are faring."

While Jingle agreed, Jangle failed to reply to that last comment. Another deep breath. 

"What's wrong, Jangle?" asked Santa.

"A lot of things. I just wish he could be here." he lamented.

"Well, I'm sure he would've never agreed to dress up for the occasion." Jingle laughed. Jangle smiled for a bit, then went back to having a blank expression.

Then, as if summoned by mentioning him, a Christmas miracle occured right before Jangle's eyes: his brother, accompanied by the Lalindes, turned the corner and walked towards them as Lalinde finished talking with a resident.

"Thanks for the directions! Oh!" said Lalinde. "Why look who it is!" 

"Santa!" shrieked Vesper. She flew over to give him a big hug, which he did return joyfully.

"Ho ho ho!" he started again. "Merry Christmas to you all!"

While Lalinde went to give him a big hug, Blues and Tempo stood together perplexed. Tempo was wondering if her sister seriously believed in a myth so obviously untrue. Blues, in turn, was nervous and disappointed. Their alternate route to avoid seeing his brothers all at once at the entrance had instead led him directly to the one person he wished to hide from during his stay (at least, until the time came to pop the question). Jingle and Jangle smiled and ran over to him, but Blues' eyes couldn't leave his father's, who under that jolly smile had sad eyes that pierced his broken core.

"Blues! You actually came!" said Jangle, his sour mood turned sweet. 

"I knew he would! Aaa!" said Jingle.

The 3 siblings hugged each other like bears. This made Blues feel a bit less uneasy, if just for a moment, but he enjoyed it while it lasted.

Now, it was Blues' turn to take a deep breath to cool off. He broke the hug and, as his brothers greeted the Lalinde sisters, Blues greeted the Saint himself who stood waiting.

"H-hi, Santa." said Blues.

"Blues, er, Proto Man. Merry Christmas." he replied quietly. "How are you?"

"Could be better." he said faintly. Blues took notice of Tempo's hand that oh so suddenly held his own. He took a quick glance at her, and she gave him her best reassuring smile. He gave a soft smile in return and ignored the murmurs behind him. The attention was all on him.

"But I'm doing good. I'm glad I'm here and...I got to see you." he said.

"I feel the same way." Santa hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do, then snapped his fingers. He went over to the deer behind him and brought over his bag. "Oh, I'm so glad I ran into you! I might as well give you your present now. You're tough to locate sometimes, you know!" 

Blues shook his head lightly, as if recalibrating. "Come again? A present for me?"

"Oh, Santa you shouldn't have!" said Noelle. 

Blues looked at Tempo in confusion, then frowned. Tempo looked happy for once! Were they all in on this? Was this a joke? 

But before Blues could even begin to get mad, Santa took out what looked like the biggest present of them all, that was left anyway. It didn't take a robot to figure out what was inside with it's triangular shape on one end and a long rectangular handle on the other. Everyone in that hallway, including the deer, gasped in surprise and joy as Blues received his gift.

"Merry Christmas, Proto Man." he said warmly. "A certain someone personally asked me to give this to you, as thanks for all the good you've done this year."

Blues was at a loss for words, or rather, didn't know what would be more appropriate to say first, for a moment.

"Blues?" said Noele. "What do we say?"

Any other day, Blues' temper would've gone out of control at the implication of thanking this man. But that day, his rationality won out, and his mind was unclouded. So, much to his surprise, he ended up saying it.

"Thank you." he murmured, eyes looking elsewhere hidden by his shades, then added with a chuckle: "I really don't deserve this, I mean, I don't know where I'll keep this, I don't exactly have a place to put it."

Vesper's lively voice seemed to boom in comparison to Blues' and Santa's tone. 

"He can leave it in our house, right guys?" said Vesper.

Noele and Tempo agreed. 

"Thanks, guys." said Blues. If he didn't know any better, Blues' would've thought the Lalinde's had been slowly trying to get him to stay with them with these gestures. Probably. Nah. But maybe?

"Blues, isn't there something you wanted to ask Santa Claus?" said Tempo.

Noelle shot her a glare that barely registered in her sensors. Vesper stayed quiet as Blues did the same. He was as frozen as a computer with a nasty virus. Not even a breath to cool down. 

Jangle knew what it was about, and, for that moment, he was as frozen as his brother, silently pleading that he'd move, that he'd ask, that someone would ask the question for him at least! And it took Jingle a moment to figure out what this was all about. She would have a word with her brother about this. Surely there was a visit she missed regarding the issue that they agreed to keep secret and, if Blues had actually considered it, then she tried not to think of what that implied for his faulty system.

In the end, it was Santa that broke the silence with a quick, deep breath you would take when taking notice of your own lack of breathing.

"It's alright. There's no need to rush things. I'll be around for him to ask whatever he wants all day and night." said Santa as he put back the bag in its place. "Well now, Proto, ladies, I'll be off now. I hope you enjoy the party. Happy holidays!" 

Santa left with his merry group in a hurry. Noele could've sworn she saw a glitter in Mr. Claus' eyes. The two elves followed closely behind with the deer. Jingle put on a smile for Blues while Jangle refused to even look at him. Betrayed. Blues wanted to reach out to him. He wished he could simply punch him in the arm and take a photo of him in that childish elf costume. But it would only make things worse. 

"Give it time." said Tempo.

As Vesper nagged to Blues about this event and Noele shot her down, he remained silent. Tempo did the same. They all understood him, but Blues saw himself in Tempo in the silence, and their issues, and their flaws, and their so-hard-to-work with personalities. He assured them, promised them that he would ask Santa for the repair by the end of the night, but it had to be his decision, not someone else's. His.

As Vesper kept complaining and Noele kept sighing, Tempo squeezed Blues' arm a few times in reassurance. They both smiled in unison. They both said, "don't worry" to each other without muttering a word, and thought of hanging out after this party. They also thought: "Please let this be a normal party even though I don't know what a normal party is supposed to be like." But this was a very Cossack Christmas, and they were anything but normal.


	7. The Great Snowball Fight, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kalinka premiers the new game of "Royals and Rebels" when a snowball fight breaks out in the Citadel. Everyone's having fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, I've finished this chapter, or at least part 1 of it. I know, I know: Christmas is over, but it's still winter and I bet I can finish this before the end of February, and I will! Enjoy!

The Great Snowball Fight, part 1

If there was one thing that Thomas chose to not do again after that Christmas, it was to carry the bag of presents from the chemical labs all the way to the main faculty building in the Citadel. He thought to take Roll's advice and get a back massage as soon as possible. Besides that, the Santa impersonation and present delivery was perfect until the end, in Tom's opinion. Yes, he had received the heads up from Noele beforehand, but Thomas didn't expect to randomly come across his long lost son in the middle of the hallway of all places. Couldn't it have been in the middle of the party, out of costume and surrounded by friends and family? Did it have to be that awkward and unexpected? 

Thomas thought that he deserved it somehow. After all, he didn't warn Noele about his plan to come as Santa, nor did he plan to tell Mik about bringing Blues along. But Thomas immediately justified those decisions thinking that surprises were the spice of life, and things like that. Besides, the other two doctors had their own fair share of them. Mik told no one, not even his own daughter, that he planned to bring back Skull Man. Only the government officials he asked permission from knew, and they weren't about to announce to the press the sudden reactivation of a "deadly" robot. Noele, on the other hand, wasn't the type of person to surprise people often, and yet she decided to bring a rebellious robot of her own to the party. Indeed, they were all at fault. Trying to make up for past mistakes will lead you to do those things.

When Tom and company were finally alone in one of the labs to change clothes, Rock interrupted his thoughts.

"Did you know that he was coming?" Rock asked.

"Yes." Thomas responded after taking a moment to return to the real world. "Noele told me about him when she called me after the plane landed.. Poor Blues. Apparently, he had come by our house just after we left."

"You see, Roll? We should've waited a bit more!" Rock said.

"A few minutes more and we would've missed the plane. You know that." she said methodically. 

"It's fine, Rock." said Thomas, hand on his son's shoulder. "I doubt Blues thinks ill will."

"Yeah. He took too long. It's...almost as if he tested us. He wanted to find out if we really wanted him to come." Rock lamented.

Thomas and Roll gave him a strange look and shook their head.

"I think he was just unsure of what to do. Right Rush?"

As soon as Roll lifted the lid on the deer's back, Rush jumped towards her, covering her in kisses. She disconnected the happy dog from the bigger bot and the deer ceased to function. Once he crawled out of the cramped compartment, Roll took out their clothes for the party. She speedily handed them out and put the costumes in the same place, including Rock's wig and their pointed ears. The Light family's colors were on theme for the party, but the only big difference in their appearance was that Roll let her hair down for the first time in forever. Being the sweet boy that he was, Rock brushed her hair as soon as they finished and Roll did the same for him. 

Thomas smiled as he stared at them.  
He imagined Blues being there, just like he did the other day. He had been hearing them talk one morning on the front yard, when they thought their father was still asleep. Blues told them stories of his travels that could've been made up or true. Either way, Blues made his siblings snicker and giggle in a cold, grey morning. He thought that scene was so sweet and warm that the Sun parted the clouds to take a look at it, melting the snow on their house soon after the red bot left for God knows where. If only Blues would stay longer, thought Tom. He knew they too wanted him to stay.

Once again, his children snapped their father out of it. Roll asked him what was wrong since he was staring at them. Rush licked his hand in concern.

"It's nothing, dear." he replied. But Roll would have none of that, knowing him well enough to hit the nail in the head.

"It's going to be fine, dad." she said happily. "Blues and you just need some time alone to talk and make up."

"When could Blues and dad be alone to talk?" asked Rock, perplexed. "There's around fifty people in this party, not counting robot masters."

"I suppose we could wait until the party's over. But then the masters will still all be here. I suppose I could pull him aside someplace, but where..." 

As Thomas paced around, Rock and Roll thought strangely of his idea.

"Dad, I don't think you should pull Blues aside. He'd get defensive." Rock said.

"Right, right." Thomas laughed. "Sorry, I'm not thinking well. I guess I'm just nervous."

"Why?" the siblings said in unison, much to their surprise. Rush cooked his head too.

"I know Blues won't hurt me, but..." he paused and stroked his beard. They knew this as a sign that he was concentrating on something. 

"The thought of a conversation turning...into a confrontation...makes me nervous...anxious even. I want to reconnect with your brother so badly, but...maybe he loathes the thought of that happening. Maybe it would be easier...not to talk to him at all..."

"Dad." Rock interrupted him before he continued. "It'll be fine. I think you need to let him decide. Don't force anything on Blues or he'll withdraw. Like a turtle."

Thomas smiled proudly. "Good analogy. Then I suppose I'll let him come to me. But will he want to even talk?"

Rock gave him a pat on his shoulder. "Of course he will. Blues has thought of talking to you for while now."

Thomas' eyes widened. "He has?" 

"Of course he has, daddy." Roll said happily, putting on a sparkling, green diadem using her phone as a mirror. "I think deep down, he wants to reconnect. He just likes being on his own, or so he says."

"He's just...wary. He's still hurt by what happened between you two." Rock patted him. 

"I know." Thomas produced a sad smile. "I want to make things right."

Rock hugged him softly, followed by Roll and Rush, the third let out a while and licked his hand once more. They made Thomas relax a bit, but he knew that he'd only feel relief once he made peace with his first born.

"Well then," Thomas sighed, "No use in dwelling on that forever. Let's see what everyone else is up to, hm?"

"Yeah!" The siblings said simultaneously. 

The four left the chemical labs and headed for the exit. They were lucky it wasn't too cold outside, for them, for Thomas perhaps, who didn't dress too well for snow. Rock rolled up the sleeves in his sweater just in case he needed to use his buster for anything, even something fun like target practice.

And something fun did occur, for as soon as the doctor opened the door, Rush, well, rushed out the door hearing a commotion outside the Citadel.

"Rush, where are you going?" said Rock. It took him half a second to register what Rush had been hearing a minute beforehand.

The good hound stopped a few yards away and barked at his robots to come investigate the mysterious sounds just outside the complex. But the Light family needn't walk very far to see what it was all about. 

A few meters from the Citadel entrance, they observed Drill Man building a snow trench that divided the large structure from the wilderness beyond it. A few of the Cossack bots hurriedly clumped together snow beside him. Kalinka bravely stood above them, bravely guiding her brothers in the ongoing battle.

"Fire, my brothers! Defend your queen!" she shouted.

The Cossack brothers leaped from the narrow half pipe and shot a barrage of snow bullets toward the oncoming enemy troops. They could see some Light bots, like Elec and Proto Man firing back at them. Proto saw his siblings in the distance and signed "peace" before hiding behind a trunk. Both sides used the old, thick trees to defend themselves. An enemy air trooper in particular used it to the max: too fast to hit normally and the trees made it all the more difficult. 

When the buzzing robot emerged onto the No Man's Land between the trench and the forest, Dust Man decided that now was the time to strike. He ran into the front lines, and shot a huge, rectangular snow block toward it. A near miss! But alas, Vesper Woman was too fast for the Cossack bots.

"Take cover!" Kalinka yelled and practically dove face first into the snow trench below with the rest of them as Vesper shot a flurry of snowballs toward them, the ammo provided to her from her bag. The brothers shielded their queen against the attack, then fired back when she flew back into the woods to recharge.

Next was Pharaoh's turn. He fired his signature shot at the pollinator and landed it. Blinded and disoriented, Vesper hit a tree, taking a hit on her shoulder and falling down below. She was momentarily down, covered in a white blanket that fell from the branches above.

"Dang it, if only I could use my bulb!" yelled Bright Man in envy. He had to remove his lightbulb to avoid becoming a giant, walking target for the opposing Light and Lalinde robot masters.

"Finally, an easy target!" Ring Man emerged, taking this chance to capture the enemy troop. He shot his boomerang perfectly, but it was deflected by two units emerging from the woods: Time and Oil Man. Oil shot his black goop backward for impulse as he rode his snowboard, Time standing behind him. Good thing they were small enough to fit! Time had slowed everything down around them before the ring could bind their comrade, giving Oil enough time to deflect the weapon and shoot Ring right on the face.

"Gah! Again! Dive, give me water!" Ring pleaded, retreating into the trench.

Thanks to the two bots, Vesper was able to recalibrate and hide amongst the trees. Time and Oil continued their attack on the other Cossack's, circling them like mosquitoes, distracting them while the others took their shots.

"Ring Man down! Now's our chance!" Vesper yelled.

On cue, Guts Man emerged from the woods, giant snowball in hand, and charged toward the trench. Coming to counter him was Dust Man, reloaded with another snow block.

"Yargh!" yelled Guts Man as he threw the giant ball. Kalinka screamed, fearing they would be buried. But Drill Man came to the rescue and launched his weapon at the center of the white mass. It broke into pieces while Guts fell, victim to a direct snow block hit.

"Help! I can't get up!" yelled Guts as the Cossacks cheered for Drill. Kalinka emerged from the robot shield, high on excitement.  
"Out of oil! Retreat!" yelled Time and Oil. 

"I'm not leaving Gutsy!" Cut emerged onto the small field and pushed the snow away, risking his life for his brother.

Ring Man lept back into the fray as soon as he heard that. Finally, no more oil shots. Time to bind. 

Half of the other bots heeded the duo's suggestion and retreated into the wilderness. The other half made sure to keep Ring Man at bay and dodged his dreaded boomerangs.

While all of this happened, the Light family cheered on their brothers from the sidelines. Thomas was fascinated. He'd never seen all of his children play together, and he never thought he'd see them play in this manner. He decided to record the heated battle as it occured. Roll at one point grabbed their attention to Toad and Tundra Man's duet over at the pond. Poor Toad Man had but only a jacket and a scarf to keep himself warm. So, the poor bot had to feverishly dance to keep himself warm, to make it rain while his brother circled him elegantly, crystallizing and compacting those droplets to create more ammo for the war. Roll thought it was all a bit too intense for a snowball fight. Rock, on the other hand, was enamored by the snowy conflict, and decided to hop in.

As soon as Cut stepped in to defend his brother, so too did Rock. 

"C'mon boy! Roll, you too!" Rock sprinted towards the buried bot. Rush happily followed along as Roll frustratingly tried to keep up.

"Wait! I can't run that fast!" said Roll.

"Have fun, you two!" Thomas shouted and headed back inside the Citadel.

Just as the Cossack family was about to pounce on Guts, the arrival of the Blue Bomber put a halt to their plans.

"Look! It's Mega Man!" yelled Kalinka.

"The super fighting robot!" yelled Bright.

"Get 'im! Get 'im!" squeaked Toad.

"Ah, Rock!" Roll happily squealed. She ran away behind their brothers' trail as the Cossack's charged armed with balls and rings. Luckily, Bomb Man arrived to provide cover, followed by Fire Man, who swiftly melted the remaining snow off of Guts. Close behind him was Ice Man, who froze the Cossacks' in place, just for a few seconds. With the enemy stunned, most of the Light bots were able to flee.

It was an almost successful escape. Once Ring Man was able to move his arms again, he spared no time in doing what he was made for. With well placed aim, he managed to bind Ice and Fire Man just as they were disappearing into the woods. Then, with one bicep curl, the boomerangs came flying back to him with his captured prey.

"Aaaaaaaaa!" yelled Ice in a high pitched tone as he was violently jerked back. Fire, in contrast, yelled at Rock and Roll to hurry and forget them when he saw them running back. Poor Rush was conflicted, but ultimately chose to follow his best friend Rock.

Eventually, the Light bots retreated out of sight, but at least they had captured two of them. Considering the fact that they were almost buried alive, it was more than a victory for them. 

Kalinka giggled maniacally as her brothers brought the two Lights into the trench, surrounded by Cossacks glaring at them as menacingly as they could.

"Welcome to my Snowy Fortress!" she said.

"Looks more like a trench to me, wench!" said Ice. Pharaoh hit him with a ball to silence him, but this only made him snicker like a schoolyard bully.

"I'm talking about the Citadel, snow cone!" she retorted.

"Let us go, tyrant! Or you'll regret this!" said Fire dramatically.

"Oh, but the only ones who'll regret attacking this Citadel are your brothers! I'll make an example of you two!"

"What are you gonna do with us?" Ice tried to sound afraid, but he kept snickering at how intense this game of Royals and Rebels had become.

"Hmm...what indeed..." Kalinka became pensive.

Dive joked that they should dump them in the pond, and he got a resounding no in response. Tundra's "freeze them alive" idea was equally gruesome. Ice pointed out that he only used a small fraction of his power to freeze them in place. Lowering their core temperatures could hurt Fire and even himself if exposed for too long.

Bright joked that without his lightbulb, he couldn't get any good ideas, but he wasn't about to screw it back on just to have an industrial sized, custom made device shatter because of a snowball.

Nobody there had any good ideas, not even the prisoners. So what to do with the prisoners that wouldn't actually hurt them but would instill fear in their foe's hearts? The Cossack's seemed to be dumbfounded. 

Then, the missing brother joined in the fun.

"I would like to propose an idea." A grave voice said behind them. When Kalinka turned around, she faced a cloaked figure holding a shovel, menacing to everyone, except for that teenage girl and the bots around her.

"Boney!" Kalinka screeched and ran at full speed to hug him. 

"Boney?" Ice laughed aloud again. Pharaoh shoved a whole snowball in his mouth as a reprimand but he simply ended up slurping it up.

Skull Man had finally come out of the dark and into the light. Literally. Everyone rejoiced, even the Light bots, since they too had heard about all of the family drama occurring between them.

Boney hugged back the tiny teen as best he could while standing up, placing his hand behind her head.

"So what made you finally come down?" she asked, her gleeful face contrasting his chilling, permanent glare.

Boney gathered his thoughts for a second: this morning's conversation, the relative peace of the forest, Santa's arrival that filled him with joy and wonder, and finally the big snowball fight. He summarized it all to her methodically and added: "So, instead of watching the fun from afar, I've decided to be here in person to have fun with...my family.. The experience should be more fulfilling."

"Well, we're all glad you decided to come." Kalinka squeezed him again before getting into character once more.

"Tell me, Soldier of the Underworld, what fate shall befall these terrorists?"

Skull was young, so Kalinka needed to emphasize, by calling Skull by his fictional title rather than by her tone, that they were merely playing so no one shall be seriously harmed. Skull took one second to process the implication, and another for her query.

When he was finished, Skull frightened everyone with his howling laughter. Only Kalinka had heard it before, but even she was caught off guard by it. Some of the bots, like Ice and Toad, yelped at his crazed cackle as he approached the prisoners. Despite it being just a game, Skull managed to intimidate the Light bots with his striking height and newfound demeanor.

He stood right above the two, red eyes piercing their armor as if Skull was in permanent combat mode.

"Your highness." he said. Curious and intimidated, Kalinka walked over to him. He crouched down and whispered his plan to her. Her face lit up, half of it a giant, sinister grin. 

When they were done, Skull announced the method of execution loudly for all to hear.

Toad screeched, his personal battlecry. The other bots cheered Skull on too, agreeing with his macabre method of disposal. Meanwhile, Ice and Fire pretended to tremble in fear at what they'd heard.

Suddenly, a dozen Skeleton Joes pounced down on the Light bots from the edges of the trench. The two screamed in unison as the mindless drones dragged them up and then down into two nearby graves being made haphazardly. Their master laughed wickedly as he and his subordinates shoveled the piles of snow back into place on top of the enemy bots, paralyzed with fear. 

Ice couldn't move, for the snow was too heavy, and neither could Fire. However, the latter was capable of getting rid of it. It was simply a matter of when.

But in the meantime, the Cossack's rejoiced in the bots' deaths. Skull, in particular, was most glad, finally getting a chance to have some sweet, gruesome fun with his brothers. Beforehand, he'd doubted his brothers would want him to join at all. So he took a calculated risk, and determined his predictions to be erroneous. At that moment he felt something new that Kalinka and her brothers would later describe as "joy".


	8. The Great Snowball Fight, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The game of Royals and Rebels continues, but Blues decides to leave. Or does he? Either way, Skull Man is here, and he loves to fight.

Ice and Fire's echoes reached the Light bot trench, and everyone stopped in shock. Rock stood in fear and summoned his buster. The other bots didn't think they were actually in danger, but they did stop their playful antics when Rock was visibly worried.

"Why are they screaming like that?" Rock shouted as Rush paced around him nervously. "Vesper. Is everything ok?"

Vesper was on top of a large pine, buzzing around the top, trying to look through the foliage to observe the Kossack trench. She could tell them in detail, but decided to avoid spoiling the fun.

"Yeah, everything's fine! But Skull Man just joined with a bunch of Joes!" she said. "They're scaring them!"

"Oh shit, Skull Man!" said Cut, his voice trembling.

"Oh, I'm so glad he finally showed up!" Roll said happily.

"Hell yeah!" Oil and Time said in unison.

Rock put away his weapon and sighed in relief. When he returned to his look-out post, next to Blues, Rock found his brother frowning, instead of having the jovial smile he was so glad to see before.

"This isn't awesome. We're screwed." Blues said aloud. "Now we have to worry about Ring and Skull!"

"Not yet, soldier! We've got all we need right here!" said Guts, pointing to his pile of giant snowballs.

"Really, Guts?" Elec said, unamused.

"Sure, why not!" Guts cheered.

"We can't cover you when there's a dozen, little death drones throwing snowballs at us!" said Elec.

"You know what I think?" Blues added. "We were never meant to win this. We're just playing around to fulfill her silly, little villain fantasy."

"Her...fantasy?" Tempo commented.

"Yeah." Blues explained. "Kalinka loves to be the center of attention. She loves to play princess, and now she's playing the queen. And if she loses, she'll throw a tantrum for sure."

"Isn't she too old for that?" Tempo said.

"A little bit, yeah." Roll said. "She's the only kid in the Citadel, so we always play with her when we visit."

"I don't care if she's lonely." Blues pouted. "I refuse to be her little toy."

"So you'd rather run and hide than fight with us, soldier?" Guts said like a superior officer.

"Never call me soldier, again." Blues hissed, glaring from behind his glasses.

Wounded, Guts pressed his hand to his chest.

"Sorry." Guts said.

"Ugh, do you have to be like that all the time?" said Vesper, descending from the tree. "Who cares if we win or not, or if it's her fantasy? The point of this is to have fun!"

"Well, I'm not having fun anymore." Blues started to walk away from the trench.

"Aww, Blues don't go." said Rock.

"Don't worry, I'll just be inside." Blues assured him.

"Aw, ok…" 

"Ugh!" Vesper said.

Tempo and Blues waved and smiled to each other before he left for the Citadel.

"Welp. One less gunner. " said Bomb.

"Raruggh! Who cares if they've got Skull Man! His balls ain't as big as mine!" said Guts, grabbing two big ones over his shoulders. "Let him come! I'll bury him beneath these two!"

"Hell yeah, Gutsy!" said Cut as the others laughed at his innuendo and cheered in unison.

"I bet Skull is all bark and no bite, anyway." said Vesper.

Soon afterward, when Rock alerted his team to a group of approaching Joes, half of them took up defensive positions behind the trees while the other half fell down to the small trench skillfully sculpted by Tempo, whom at that moment got hit on her back with a snowball along with her sister.They turned to the aggressor and found Blues hiding behind a small incline holding a finger to his lips and motioning them to come over.

"Come here!" he mouthed. They quietly did, curious.

"I thought you didn't want to play anymore." said Tempo.

"I didn't, but I got an idea that might actually help us win. But I need your help and it needs to be kept secret." 

The sisters looked at him with exaggerated suspicion until Vesper broke the silence.

"Ok, sure."

Blues cocked his head in surprise at the rapid response.

"What, didn't think it would work? Hey, I'm having fun even if we're outmatched, but if we get to actually beat that brat in her home base, then I'm all ears."

"I'm in too. Throwing snowballs at each other is getting boring." Tempo added.

Blues grinned with glee. "All right, here's what I'm thinking we could do…"

As Blues' team got to work on their secret mission, the rest of the Light bots started battling the Skeleton Joes intensely. 

When the Joes stopped throwing snowballs, the robot masters threw back with much greater strength than the mass produced soldiers could. They fell backward with one, well placed strike on their heads or chests. In contrast, when they stopped, the Joes couldn't even knock back tiny, Cut Man with 2 snowballs.

The poor drones didn't even have the capacity to get mad at them, and simply kept using the same strategy while their enemies defeated them in many ways. The boys howled when Guts, by punching a tree trunk, buried 3 Joes with tree branch snow, in the same way he had done to start this whole event in the first place. However, Guts regretted that move when he saw an Arctic owl flee from its damaged home. No more tree punching, Guts declared, which wasn't a big deal since the Joes were easy to beat. Too easy.

Whenever they ran out of snowballs, they rushed over to Bomb, who, instead of storing bombs, stored snowballs inside of him. Bomb felt embarrassed, not only because his core body heat made the snowballs soggy, but also because, as they melted, they leaked and made it seem like Bomb was peeing through the battlefield. Elec, Oil, and Time were ruthless when they jokingly pointed it out, so Bomb threatened to waste one of his big ones on Elec (even if Oil and Time were also guilty of bullying him).

"Come at me, bro! These Joes ain't shit anyway!" said Elec.

And, on cue, Guts buried Elec under one of his giant snowballs. As the bot cursed under the snow, his siblings broke into a cacophony of laughter.

"Serves him right." said Guts.

"Help me!" Elec said in a muffled tone.

"Sure, grab my hand." Bomb said. And when Elec stuck his hand out, Bomb dropped the soggiest, grossest snowball on it.

Elec screamed and threw it out, then tried to thrash around. When he was finally able to stick his face out of the small mountain he was under, Rush ambushed him, and drowned him with artificial spit and kisses.

"Ah! Rock, call him off!" Elec raged, yet he couldn't help but laugh.

"Nah." said Rock. "He likes you!"

Even when the Joes kept hitting them, the bots kept teasing poor Elec. So it seemed that all of the Light bots had stopped playing Kalinka's game entirely by that point, much to her dismay and frustration, for she was closer than they realized. 

"Don't fret, my queen. They are distracted and will fall easily." said Skull, hidden next to her and feeling her shift of mood.

"I want them all buried alive." she professed silently with a wicked grin. "Except for Rock and Roll. I want them."

"Understood, my queen."

"Hey, guys?" said Roll, "Where's Vesper and Tempo?"

They looked around and called them out. No response. 

"Did they leave too?" Roll whined.

"Ugh! They probably went to make out with Blues." said Elec.

"What? Really?" Rock questioned.

Elec snickered along with his brothers.

"No, I'm joking, you dingus." said Elec.

"Oh." Rock blushed.

"Unless..." Elec pondered quietly, imagining Blues as a ladies man who'd scored while they were playing with snow like babies. Damn! Nobody seemed to have heard his comment though, or they ignored it because they thought it was stupid and typical of Elec.

"Now what?" asked Roll.

"I don't know!" said Rock. "Wait for them to come, I guess."

"You don't need to wait at all." Skull shouted. His spooky voice sent shivers down their spines as his shadow emerged from behind an astonishingly thin tree. 

"We meet again Rock." Skull said, circling the bots as he blended in with the black and white trunks. "Nice to finally meet your siblings. Though I must say, most of them don't seem as strong as you. A shame." 

Though Rock stared him down with a confident smirk, most of his siblings were meeting him for the first time and were in awe when his macabre appearance drew closer, enough for them to discern him properly. The bot really did resemble a skeletal figure, an armored Jack Skellington with terminator eyes, a hunchback when looking down at the smaller bots like Cut, who retreated behind the sturdy, rigid body of a frightened Guts (sure, he could break Skull like a toothpick, but Guts wasn't the type that liked fighting, or the type that could handle a mean stare like Skull's).

Confident and daring, instead of standing quietly in reverence of the metal, slender man, Oil Man whistled at the sight of what was to him a handsome figure, much to everyone's surprise. This prompted them to break suddenly into laughter, especially Elec who was the first to cackle aloud at Oil's fowardness. Even Kalinka joined in, who quickly covered her mouth in hope that nobody would find her hiding place.

Skull's bewildered expression added to their laughter. The poor guy went from ominous villain to embarrassed, tall kid in a flash. Why did he whistle like that? He couldn't possibly be attracted to me! So, kid that he actually was, Skull took offense.

"You shall regret making fun of Skull Man!" he said angrily.

"We're not making fun of you." said Bomb.

"We just...we just didn't think he'd...he'd…" Elec couldn't help but snicker some more.

Skull looked for the bot amongst them that whistled. Was it you? Oh it must've been you with that smirk you're hiding under that scarf. The lanky bot's eyes widened when Oil locked eyes and winked at him. Oh, that did it for him.

Skull formed a ring around him, not of skulls, but of snow that was compacted and quickly thrown toward the Light bots, all done in high speeds so that he hit his marks while the bots were still laughing. Only Rock was able to dodge in time, and even then his arm got hit by a hard snowball. Just a scratch. 

All of the smaller bots got thrown backward due to Skull's strength, deadly to a human, a fair fight for a robot master. 

"Oh, you're so dead, Skull boy." said Cut.

"Someone help me up, I wanna fight too!" Elec complained.

As the Light bots got ready to take him down, Skull laughed in joy at their determined faces, preparing another round of icy projectiles.

It was a short battle. Skull was able to dodge every ball successfully, speedily using numerous trees and shooting every time he had an opening. The Light bots used a similar strategy for a short time. But just when Roll was helping Elec up on his feet, he shouted for them to look out behind them.

Too late for them. Before they knew it, each of the Light bots were restrained by Ring Man's boomerangs. Bomb and Guts were handcuffed by two smaller ones and fell forward as everyone was flung back toward Ring and his siblings as they screamed and complained. Later, Blues would explain to Rock that he was fooled by a pincer attack, and Skull was merely a distraction. 

Rock was also the only bot Ring failed to capture. It seemed as if he had captured him at first, but when he tried to pull it back, it didn't come. Rush had successfully captured the speeding object that threatened its master and pulled it out of range. 

"Good boy!" Rock said before he was struck by several of Skull's snowballs. As he got up, Skull teased them all.

"Your brothers are weaker than I thought." Skull laughed.

"That's not fair! You ambushed us!" said Roll.

Kalinka took this chance to finally reveal herself, trotting over to the captured bots.

"All's fair in love and war, my dear Roll." she said smugly. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, Rocky. Either way, you'll be mine. A shame your brother left. I'll just have to do with you and your sister then. The rest of you will be buried alive, just as your brothers were." 

Rock blushed at first, then feigned shock at what Kalinka had said. He also thought it strange since Fire could potentially melt all the snow in the surrounding area, but as he spoke, he figured that Fire would play along instead of ruining her fun.

"You fiend!" Rock screeched. "You'll never take me alive!"

"Oh? And what about your sister? You'll be risking her life if you run away. But if you stay and fight, well...it won't be pretty.

Rock gave her a mean stare that she relished in, like a true villain.

"Rock, save yourself!" Roll cried. "You can't fight them all!"

Rock wanted to fight them all, pelt them with snowballs and go down fighting in a storm of snowy fury. But he knew he had a chance to save them if he ran. So he did.

"Rush, jet!" he yelled. His trusty hound transformed in an instant and the two flew away, faster than any Joe or robot master present, deeper into the forest until they were out of sight from them all. 

In the distance, they could hear Skull's booming growl.

"Bring them back to the Citadel!" he ordered.

Rock peeked out at the leaving group once the horizon allowed it. Though it was a game, part of him felt despair at seeing his brothers be charted away, as if Kalinka and the Cossacks would actually hurt them. Following this logic, he huffed the fear out through his nose as he laughed at his brothers' inaudible teasing and wondered what could Megaman do to save the day.

And Megaman indeed did appear that day, but just for a moment, buster pointed at a target as Rock felt someone approach him out of the blue. Even Rush was surprised at the sudden presence. But it was just Blues, crimson hands where he could see him next to his alarmed face.

"Where did you come from?" Rock inquired, his armor summoned away. "You scared me."

"Jeez, sorry. I thought you heard me flying on my shield nearby." Blues said and petted Rush who dropped the Ring Boomerang to gently lick his hand.

"I can only hear better when I'm Megaman." he said casually. "I thought you knew."

"I do."

"Then you did it on purpose, ya dope." Rock said, imitating Blues' manner of speech.

"No." Blues frowned. "I just forgot."

Rock cocked his head. "But only humans forget things."

Blues paused. "Nah," he waved him off, "I have enough info here already, so it just takes longer to pull it out."

"Oh." Rock nodded. "I've never had that happen to me."

"If you live long enough, it'll happen." Blues sat down against a tree, ring in hand, and began to examine it.

"Ok." Rock smiled sweetly, sitting next to him with Rush on his lap. "So, you decided to explore the forest instead of going to the party?"

Blues managed to find a manual release button for the ring. It unclicked, and Blues was able to unlock it, forming two, large semicircles connected on one end.

"Nah. But I do want to explore the forest now." Blues said playfully. "I'm actually here on a secret mission."

Rock's tone sunk noticeably.

"A mission? You're...not still…" 

Blues took a second to register what Rock's train of thought was and nearly gasped.

"Oh no! No! I meant for the game! God, Rock I would never...never again."

"Oh sorry!" Rock laughed nervously, at the same time sighing in relief. "So, I assume Vesper and Tempo are in on it?"

'Mhm." Blues said. "They were the right people for the job. We're gonna put an end to Kalinka's game, and I want you to join."

"Really?" Rock's face lit up. Blues smiled sweetly at the sight.

"Of course! But I need your consent first?"

"For what?"

Blues showed the open ring to him. Rock's eyes widened.

"Oh."

"Yep." Blues smirked. "We're gonna pretend that I switched sides."


End file.
